Chapter 1: The Second Coming of Stonecrop
The people were panicking all of a sudden, shouting "Fire!" An alarm rang throughout the building. As the people packed up the cages in the room, another rabbit caused her cage to tumble to the floor by charging against his. The other rabbits hated her.
"Good riddance. A doe cannot play buck's role."
Luck was with her. It was the first time in forever that she could leave her cage unsupervised.
She ran trying to escape. The foul scent of smoke didn't stop her until she recoiled at the raging inferno just beyond. The heat made her turn in the opposite direction. Other people were arriving dressed in yellow. None of them paid attention to a small rabbit dashing across the floor.
Not that she knew where she was going either. She had a vague memory of the outside from a lifetime ago. It was somewhere beyond that called to her, not that she could leave the cage herself. That soon changed when they moved her to a room with other rabbits. None of them ever saw Frith.
By some miracle, she felt the rays of Frith upon her pelt. The woods lay just beyond – they were in her sight at last. A lone rabbit made her way out of the city and into the wilds. Now that she was here, she was at a loss for what to do.
There was no food nearby, and she was starving. No food, unwilling to go back, she kept on moving.
"You there," someone yelled.
She turned around, looking for the source. Unable to see anyone, she continued moving in one direction.
"Who are you?"
She looked again and saw a white rabbit.
She sniffed. She did not know him. How was she supposed to answer that? Did she even have a name? Nothing that she could remember. Her stomach growled from hunger. The humans called her El-ahrairah Ten but mostly Ten but that didn't feel like her name. The day that became commonplace, it was as if she lost something.
"A rabbit," she said.
The rabbit said, "What's your name?"
"I don't know."
"I'm Loosestrife. Why do you look like that?"
"Man." She had tiny white stars on her pelt, and white tips on her ears.
Two rabbits out of breath caught up to them.
"You really could run," a brown rabbit said.
"It helps when you go on Wide Patrols," Loosestrife said. "Maybe you should."
An out-of-breath grey rabbit said, "You and Knapweed can keep us out of it."
She sniffed the two new rabbits. She didn't know them either. They smelled different compared to the rabbits she hated.
Her stomach growled again.
"Why don't you eat?"
"There's food? Where?"
"Here." Loosestrife pointed at the grass they were standing on.
She blinked in confusion.
It wasn't until she saw him nibble on grass that she decided to try it. This – this was food. The taste was rather bland compared to the pellets that she had eaten before. She wasn't alone, the other rabbits also joined in.
They nibbled on grass for a good while until they were full.
"I'd like you to come with us to our warren," Loosestrife said.
She nodded. Whatever this warren meant.
She followed them towards the opening of a tunnel. "In there? No." It felt unsafe for some reason. "I – I'll stay outside."
"I'll get Groundsel," the grey rabbit said.
There were more rabbits nearby that came. "She smells just like Stonecrop," a rabbit said.
"Are you sure?" another rabbit said.
"I am from Watership Down. You are all just used to it."
"More of a punishment to be here if you ask me," another rabbit said. "The sooner I get to return to Efrafa the better."
"That's because you didn't tell Campion-rah that you don't want to be here."
"Then he'll rely on me less! I'll be failing him."
"He'll think less of you when he learns of this anyway."
A brown rabbit with a gash on his left frank emerged. "I am Groundsel the Chief Rabbit here."
"What does that mean?" she asked.
They explained to her that Chief Rabbit meant leader more or less.
"Do you need a place to stay?" Groundsel said.
"Do I?" she said. "I just followed Loosestrife here." She came here without a purpose.
Loosestrife said, "Groundsel-rah, she doesn't even have a name."
"This is going to take some time. Come along." Groundsel went into the tunnel.
She didn't follow. If she stopped seeing the sun, she might never see it again.
"She doesn't want to go into our warren."
"I don't want to lose sight of Frith," she said.
Groundsel had to chat with the newcomer above ground because she wouldn't go into the warren. "Tell me about yourself then," he said with slight irritation in his voice.
"A long time ago, going by a different name, I used to live in a hutch by the window. The outside was always there but never in reach. The few times they let me out were among many humans. They played with me. One day, the room was abuzz with cheer, was the final day I was ever in that room again. They moved me into a cage – and placed me into a room devoid of Frith's rays. Large humans cared for me then, trying to get me to move in certain ways. I never quite understood. They ceased using my name, so I forgot what it was. I don't want to leave the touch of Frith again," she said, recalling her memories as best as she could.
"How did you escape?"
"There was a great inferno. A caged rabbit knocked my cage to the ground – and I was free. They wanted to be rid of me. I was finally able to get where I always wanted to go. Then he found me."
A nearby doe dug a very shallow hole in the dirt. "Would you be willing to come here? It can get cold outside at night."
"Cold?" she said. "It doesn't feel cold now."
"Loosestrife and Calix keep an eye on her at all times," Groundsel said.
"Yes, sir," Loosestrife said.
Groundsel went back into the warren.
These two rabbits stayed with her as she lay in the grass, enjoying the warmth of the sun. When the sun started to set, the air started losing its warmth to the point of making her shiver.
"Why don't we go inside?" Loosestrife asked. "It'll be okay."
"Look! Look at her ears!" Calix exclaimed. "All the elil will know that we are here."
"My ears?" she said.
Sensing an urgency, Loosestrife pushed her into the warren. A doe on her first day in the wild was no match for a buck.
"Let me out!" she yelled frantically. "I don't want to go." It was happening again – she'd never see the sun again.
"Sorry," Loosestrife said. "There's no time."
Her struggles were futile. All her kicking and screaming did nothing. Loosestrife pushed her further and further into the burrow.
Groundsel sounded unhappy when he heard about the commotion. "What's going on here?"
"Her ears, they glowed," Loosestrife said. "There wasn't time."
Groundsel approached her. "I'm sorry, you can't leave. It's not safe."
Her nose twitched fearfully. "Let me out."
A single rabbit said what was all on their minds, "Look at her tail! She looks like El-ahrairah."
She was a brown rabbit that looked like she had the touch of starlight upon her ears and tail.
Upon hearing that accursed name, she ran the opposite way, trying to get away. She was more than just "Ten" that cursed moniker that she loathed so much.
"Make sure she doesn't leave. Block all the exits," Groundsel yelled.
They didn't stop her from moving about in the warren but rabbits were blocking every single way out. Her instincts told her to dig instead. It was only then that the rabbits took direct action by physically restraining her. She wasn't going anywhere with another sitting on her.
The glow on her ears and back attracted curious rabbits who came to see her. Soon, there was a crowd in front of her.
The rabbits talked amongst themselves.
"This really reminds you of something, doesn't it?"
"Let us hear the tale of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inlé."
"Sooner or later…"
It was akin to something she had heard day after day on repeat. She began to wail, hoping to block the sounds out. They didn't silence her, but the rabbits moved far enough away for her cries to be less of a distraction.
She couldn't leave with a buck sitting on top of her. And even though the rabbits were a good deal away, she could still hear them. Her cries became louder, trying to blot out the sounds. She wasn't loud enough for she could still hear. She became silent for it was futile.
More rabbits came – some offering to help her if she wanted them to. Groundsel quickly learned that he needed the Owsla guarding her to prevent chaos. No one dared to help her then.
"But she's El-ahrairah," a rabbit said.
"Do you want elil to kill her?" Groundsel said. "She stays there."
Any time the rabbits near her tried to tell a story about El-ahrairah, she became distressed. They talked about how their day went to pass the time instead. It wasn't that they were unfriendly towards her. They just couldn't let her leave or let her dig.
A rabbit with an outright terrifying scent approached. He smelled so strongly of man that it was as if she had never left that room.
"My name is Stonecrop, and you look beautiful," he said.
She cried in despair.